On the afternoon of January 21, a fisherman spotted the large fish in the shallow water near the park. He immediately contacted Awashima Marine Park officials, who caught the shark and transported it to the park's dolphin pen, where they turned it loose. The weak shark was able to survive for several hours -- long enough for park officials to videotape it swimming around. Video footage of the frilled shark near the sea surface is very rare, and the park says it will keep the video for research purposes.

The frilled shark is typically found at a depth of around 600 meters (2,000 feet). Its slender body grows to about 160 cm long, and unlike most sharks, which typically have 5 sets of gills, the frilled shark has 6 sets. It is known as a "living fossil" for its resemblance to extinct, Paleozoic sharks.

Researchers investigating why the shark was found in shallow waters think it may have surfaced along with deep-sea water pushed up to shallow depths by easterly winds. Another possibility is that it left the deep waters because of cool water temperatures near the surface. Or perhaps it came in search of food.

Alex

How about finding ways to immediately help that poor shark, while they were praising of its scientific significance about this?!

That shark looked ill and OMG I could NOT believe that the people just left him/her swimming around like this.

It just downright hurts my heart to have seen this, assuming they just let him detoriate and die like that. At least bring him back to the ocean and feed him enough to allow it a chance to sustain and survive on his own afterwards...

I just hope my assumption that they've done nothing to help this shark was wrong. Could only hope I was wrong.

Sham

Hi Alex.
I think they couldn't really do much to help, even if they wanted to. Even if they continue feeding it, it would most probably die since it's used to the strong pressure in the deep sea, rather than the light pressure near the surface. Even a human can't survive in very high altitudes of the earth's atmosphere. It's just the same with them.

Can you believe it! Like a ''living fossil'' swimming around down there then BAM! a rare kind os shark and we see this. I find this is beyond amazing, like super amazing and i hope to see another one of them caught on tape.

I wonder how many of those Frilled Sharks they really is. It look very tough and dangerous.

dferg10

The shark looks more freakish than it normally would because its gills are coming out due to the drop in water pressure from its normal depth. They would appear more streamline and eel like at depth. It is easy to see how saliors of old would have seen one as a sea serepent near the surface.

it is an incredible animal, and i wish t could have lived, and i agree that coming so close to he surface probably had something to do with its death, due to the change in pressure and disorientation. I really wish it could have lived longer to study or tag it.

dferg10

I just found this link showing numerous very cool deep sea creature videos that I am sure many of you will enjoy. Check out the one of a healthy Deep Sea Frill shark cruising the ocean floor. The shark that made it to shallow water/surface, was likely doomed and it is doubtful anything could have been done to save it. The internal damage would have been irreperable.

John

shanete' ross

never seen anything more cool in my life. That was so friggin cool. An actual living, breathing, swimming fossil. And living animal that has traces all the way back to about 50 million years ago. So cool.

Marinebiologist

This creature was dieing by the looks of it from the video. The creature came up from the depths of the water for food due to the color of the creature’s skin. Any type of marine life that exists below 400ft are usually translucent and this creature was not.

Also, if this creature lives 2,000 ft below the sea, (he/she) should have been dead unless there was a place where this creature was feeding from (microorganism of some sort). (Another theory would be that if it were a female creature then it might have come up in order to find a mate.)

In addation to food the creature might have had an issue with the current below either shifting or maybe some sort of volcanic eruption causing temp. change and killing organism.

Sandy

This really is amazing and sad at the same time. This animal lives in a depth of 2000 feet which is about the distance of 2 empire state buildings. Just like humans need the atmospheric pressure to hold our insides together, this animal needs that same pressure from the weight of the ocean. Without it, it will die. It is disturbing to me that the above article stated that, "the weak shark was able to survive for several hours". Maybe I'm being too critical but I agree with the person who said there should have been more done to protect the life of the animal. Why not trasport it back to deeper ocean, rather than a dolphin tank, I would imagine, knowing it could not survive. For amusement purposes maybe? Of course, I'm no shark expert. Maybe it was doomed regardless. My point is, couldn't they have at least tried to save it?
Anyway, it is amazing footage and until I saw it on the news, I didn't even know it existed. I encouage everyone to google the internet and look at photos of frilled sharks. Their gills are not normally open like the one shown above and it looks more like a huge eel. Fascinating!

ni3tzsch3

It's too bad that it died (still curious as to why it did, though I'm guessing the pressure variance was a major contribution if not the cause) but I'm also extremely glad that they got to get such up-close documentation of this. It would have almost certainly died either way, so studying it for the short time it was alive is a good use of it's time. Maybe they can figure out exactly why it came to the surface in the first place.

Truly awesome creature though. Primitive creatures are always so interesting. I only wish we knew more about them. :)

Azana

This was a rare moment that we should all cherish.
All you folks messin' with God like that better watch out. That sh!t is NOT funny...
Anyway,
God didn't kill anything. It was it's time to move on and maybe that's why God allowed the animal to experience the upper levels of the water before it passed on (a last wish, maybe?). See, the experience wasn't really for us to see the shark, it was for the shark to see us and to see what it was like, "up there." After that, it was ready to go.

Thor... are you serious right now? Grow up. Leave that sh!t at the card shop, loser.

miss swan

I found this creepy looking thing pretty amazing.. Can someone tell me if thats how they should actually look it kinda looks really thin....looks sickly ,, or is it suppose to look like that ?? I do realize it died soon after this too.. Just wanted to know if thats what they look like normally.. the other links didn't show too much

Bob

Funny how religious people think of god when they see ocean predators with no purpose other than reproducing and seeking food and that existed hundreds of millions of years before their religion was ever fabricated.

Bellcross

Bob What you said was vary right. all the gods that this wourld has offer was created one after another and not only that they all have long and bloody history, and plus idoits belive in god because it's easyer then finding out the truth. you keep on doing what you do best. :)

This is an amazing creature, and it had probably did not adapt well to the pressure changes by the time it was found. However the shark did look extremely sick, and it is a sad case indead that it died. I did some research on what it would take to get a Viper Fish in a home aquarium, and just the pressurization alone was going to cost thousands. Thats not even getting down the cost of capture and recovery, the earth is changing and we will see more of these strange creatures evolve or surface. Please understand since this appears to be a diverse site on religions, when I speak of evolving everything in nature evolves or adapts. Miracles can be an Act of God's, but evolving an adapting is something that happens in nature. It was a pleasure finding this site.

Ollie N

poor thing they killed it stupis idiots why why did they kill it its obvious its not a normal fish look at it its like a python headed fish its jind of creepy but i hope we find more and research them we need to know more about there species what else could be down there the possabilities are endless what next? a 10 eel like 30ft long or somin but come on respect the wildlife there dying and it probaly our folt we need to be careful first dodos what next bengal tigers,giant sea turtles or maybe even us?

vickie

I am so amazed at how so many of you can say that God had a hand in this. Perhaps/Maybe but I say it is a living mirical regardless and I am so happy to have the oppertunity to see it as I know all of you can agree. Wow amazing? you bet makes me wonder how many more creatures are in the ocean that we have no idea of yet. I always wanted to scooba dive but Now I may think twice. Scarry to be in the ocean with an unknowen creature like that. One can only guess the kind of power it may possess.

Rose

That species is incredibly beautiful; six sets of gills, one hundred and thirty three pronged teeth, no distinct "sharky" dorsal fin. Seeing that foorage make me want to put on my dry suit, whip out my underwater camera and scuba till my tank runs out of air. Thank's for posting that, I'm totally having a geekgasm.

While in principle it would have been a great thing to save the shark, I have to ask, just how long would it have taken to get it into deep water, and how? I'm thinking there are some pretty serious logistical hurdles to work out, and very little time to work them out in.

I'm pretty sure that the pressure drop was what ultimately killed it, but I do wonder whether it was sick to begin with, and if that was what disoriented it enough to get into the shallows in the first place.

Nathan

http://strange.myeyez.net/loch-ness-monster.shtml?13
The link above is what the Lochness monster would look like.
The Lochness monster isn't even a monster at all. It's a type of dinosuar.
Dinosuars still exist today; for example: the corcodile, or the deep sea frill shark.
some dinosaurs evolve and change the way they look while some stay the same.
The Lochness monster is just a type of animal. The term "monster" just was created for something that we don't have enough information about. There was a story about where a fisherman caught a fish that was thought to be extinct over 65 million years ago but it was still alive. Even if some super deep freeze killed many dinosuars or a giant meteor hit the earth, not every living thing would be killed. If you have ever experienced a really cold winter, and the water freezed, did you notice maybe a couple of inches froze? Not the entire lake or pond. So If there was a super deep freeze, it is extremely enlikely that the entire ocean froze, and that the sealife simply kind of "migrated" south or deeper into the deep seas. Plus the couple of sighting of the Lochness Monster has been in a lake not an ocean. So thus the Deep Sea Frill Shark cannot be the Lochness Monster.
When it comes down to the meteor, I highly doubt that it killed every living thing on Earth. If you take a nuclear missle for example, the explosion covers only a couple of kilometers. I'm not saying that may species of dinosaurs didn't die form the meteor, i'm just saying that even if the Earth was hit by a giant meteor, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Global Warming would probably have a bigger effect then a giant meteor. Maybe Global Warming has something to do with the death of the sick Deep Sea Frill Shark.

Jennifer

Hi this was the first time I ever saw a frilled shark... I saw it on msn and was like what the??? At first glance I knew something wasn't right the inflemation of the gills,,, the positioning of the mouth (always open) and the fact it was rocking in the water showing it surficed way to quickly... The poor shark had no chance when it reached the surface... If you did some reaserch on human scuba divers If they reach the surface to quickly(before the bubbles) they get blood bubbles in the brain... Depending on certian sircumstances mainly the speed of the surfacing can result in organ failure but that is the most extreem circumstance... Now no offence to some of the god people but it wouldn't have been a gift from god for the creature it would have been pure agany for it untill and durring the dissorientation proccess and no god is that crule...

Leona Shepard

Reminds me of the photo taken July 5th, l977 by Sandra Mansi of "Champ", Lake Champlain, Barber's Point, New York.
Then there is "Nessie", living in Loch Ness near Inverness Scotland.
The "Altamaha-Ha", has been sighted since 1960, Altamaha River near Darien Georgia.
In June of 1997 a video was taken in Lake Van in Eastern Turkey of the "Lake Van Monster".
Lake Memphremagog, straddling the U.S. and Canadian Border is the home of "Memphre' ", with early sightings in 1847.
Argentina's Nahuel Huapi Lake is the home of "Nahuelito", described as a giant snake with fins and a swan with a snake's head.
In Lake Seljordsvatnet, located in Norway, "Selma" has shown itself since 1750.
Native Americans near Okanagan Lake in British Columbia called their sea monster "N'haaitk", or "Ogopogo".
Finally a video from the Awashima Marine Park is available to verify the spotting by a fisherman of this odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of teeth.
My Guess is, all of the above mentioned are related. Trawler nets have sometimes caught one of these, but rarely alive.
No doubt an endangered species of Shark.
I wonder if seismic rumblings cause these (chlamydoselachus anguineus) to surface. Maybe searching for a new home.

Paul

SF

It is interesting to see such an amazing creature. A real delight. It is equally a shame that the poor thing was dying. Its eyes looked like it was blind, but sharks have an electromagnetic tracking system, so it was OK in that regard. It also constantly had its mouth open, which is normal for a whale shark or something that eats plankton, but this was obviously built to eat meat. While no one has any idea how it got so close to the surface, it was no doubt that the animal was doomed at that point. The water pressure differential is too great.

I also noticed one person saying how awesome God is by seeing such a magnificent creature. I must say that I agree. God is awesome and the Bible says that His handiwork is clearly seen through His creation, so that men are without excuse in believing in Him.

I also noticed how quickly someone who wrote a short, concise, harmless little comment on how great God is in creation, was attacked by some foolish cuss words. How ridiculous. I also noticed how the first commentator wisely chose to not respond. kudos. Tons more maturity.

Also, to the person who said that Christianity was fabricated after the 50 million years or whatever made up number, please check the facts. No one knows for sure how old the Earth is. How do you account for a so-called "living fossil". If evolution was true, this thing would be something different by now. But this is just another hole in evolutionism. Remember, they have never found a missing liink and everything that they thought was a missing link has either been proven a lie ("Piltdown Man", anyone -- fraud), or just simply a current, tree swinging monkey ("Lucy") and the list goes on and on. Look it up. It has even been admitted to by the proponents. Only somehow, it is still in the textbooks?

People are sheep. they just beleive what they are told.

That is why so many believe in evolution. They just here some silly theory on Tv or read it in a book and agree with it, without demanding facts. The fact is, there are zero facts to support macro-evolution

What about the big bang theory. Some gasses colided and "BOOM", here we are? Well, where did the gas come from. How did it form? How was it created? The Bible tells me that God eternally existed and that He spoke the world into existence in 6 days, because He is God and He is powerful enough to do that. An eternal God is far more sound than eternal gas.

The deep sea frill shark is awesome to behold. It was created like that in the beginning and so was the great white, mako, etc. it is no more a "living fossil" than any other creature. it is just rare and we happen to have had a really old fossil of it in the past to prove it existed then. neat stuff and thanks to this website for providing this video.

d.d.

why do you people have to push that crap off on people all the time? its a shark.

all metaphysic beliefs are just allegories for the things that we cannot comprehend about existence because we are just stupid animals. the stupidist animals are just trying to reason that everything is a product of something that must think and act like themselves just so they can feel better (or worse) about it all.
frankly,if im going to believe in a religion, i prefer it to be a product of the age i live in (ie. science, evolution and physics) and i care to avoid the confused scribbling of a bunch of dispossesd dung beetles and their resultant catalysts for martyrdom and nihilism.

Brad

Coming up from that depth would have certainly ruptured the Sharks swim bladder, explaining why it was struggling to maintain balance in the water. There was nothing anyone could have done to save it.

in response to SFs comment about the Shark being blind, i assume that anything living at that depth does not use sight to hunt as there is no light at that depth.

in response to MarineBiologists comments about the fish not being able to find food at that depth, the Frilled Sharks diet consists of other sharks that are also present at that depth, like the 6 Gilled Shark and the Silky Shark, plus whale carcasses regularly settle on the sea floor providing food for the other deep water scavengers like the Hagfish. Are you a real Marine Biologist?

the fish that Nathan is refering to is the Coelacanth, the original living fossil thought to have been extinct but it is now apparent that there are living colonies living in Indonesia. On this link you can see info and videos of this amazing creature.

Azana

Azana

Brandon

I got this off another shark site if you notice it is the same thing that happens. hope u like it.

On January 21, 2007, staff at Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo, were alerted by fishermen to a 'strange eel-like fish with razor sharp teeth'. The fish was identified as a female 1.6 m frilled shark and was captured by park staff who were concerned that the shark appeared to be unhealthy. They took it out of the water and put it into a salt water tank where they filmed it and took pictures of it. The shark died a few hours after capture. This rare surface appearance of a frilled shark has been attributed to the animal being unwell and possibly disoriented.

Bridget

I love this shark and all sharks and I think it is terribly sad that it died and so many others have died. This thing is AMAZING!!!!!! I have never seen anything as interesting and this is what makes me want to go into the marine biology field.

Bridget

apparently it's feb 2nd already where this is posted. i want to assure everyone that god had absolutely nothing to do with this. some obviously prehistoric species doesn't make last wishes to god to see shallow waters. let's be serious.

benny

TristramE

In response to marine biologists ' post, all i can say is that your obviously no marine biologist and to please stop misleading people with uneducated drivel.
In response to Elementary Watsons' post, most learned people believe that the loch -ness monster "was" a Plesiosaur or the larger Pliosaur. Apparently bones were found of a Plesiosaur in the loch but debate rages as to whether it was just another hoax or not. If there is a GOD all i can say is that Jesus needs another shoulder-load, because its getting far too out of hand! Irregardless of religion people continue to abuse each other and the natural kingdom, setting humanity on a navigational distaster course. What future do you want for your children?

this is a rare video of a frilled shark only to be found in 2000 to 3000 ft under water. some say that if they are sick they come to the surface. on janury 21st 2007 a japanse man found a sick frilled shark in the wide open. the man told tfk now the shark is in a marien acuareum.

Tariq

I think this was test from god to see if we could take care of things that are ill and to prove that we are caring and non selfish creatures I mean since when will a sick rare shark just come up to a fisherman and I mean please it was diing and all we did was video tape it please if i gave humans a test and they did the same thing i would give an F- -. The F- for not helping and the extra - for video taping it i mean we took its dignity away. So i am not saying anymore.

Brad

Tariq what planet are you on!?
This creature lives at 2000 ft! Its swim bladder would have been destroyed coming up through the layers, how do you suggest they help it!? and footage of these fish alive is extremely rare, it was they're duty as biologists to document it!

Rachel

This is amazing!!! It is like nothing I've ever seen before! After I read about it, I had to find more info, which led me to this site!!!! This is so COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

folling jesus

hey i just wanted to ask Viking Lord if there was a book on thor because the only book i see is the bible and no evaloshin made this creacher that was only God alone maby God wanted to show his glory by making this cool creacher

Casey

Some of you are pretty cool and intelligent, and some of you are really stupid and traditional conservatives.

I believe in God, but I don't believe he had a single thing to do with this unless you wish to re-route EVERY SINGLE DAMN THING back to his creation of the Heavens and Hells. CAN WE PLEASE KEEP ALL OF THIS OBJECTIVE!?

studying ichthyology

wow. wanna know why it is dying? because its food source is probibly running low where it lives, so it had to go to shallower depths. these fish arent built to live in such low pressure. it is also probibly never seen such bright light.

....

umm... Dferg10... it's gils are always like that.. hence the name FRILL SHARK. the only thing that would be ailing it at that point would be severe internal pain due to it's organs changing size, a bad case of the bends and it's eyes would be hurting like heck due to the fact that the animal had probibly never seen even half that much light in its entire life... jut sose ya'll know...

bill

Dupe

Ok, even though that was very awesome I just dont get why they didnt help the poor creature?!?!? You could tell that she / he was sick or old just by looking at her / him. That wonderful creature would of probably been better off in the water being left alone. It would of probably lived longer than it would of when they took her / him out. Next time yall find something cool, dont take it out of it natural living place, it will probably live longer that way.

well from the looks of the shark/fish w.e u would like to call it its very ill looking and the crap u guys said about god and thor... idk who thor even is but w.e noone is really worried about that ppl are worried about the fish... yes i understand its one of gods many creations... (understandable) but the fish looks very ill obviously its swim bladder bursted and it rose to the surface to die agonizing yes i know but the whatever aquarium or w.e u wanna call it should of just left it if u ask me yes its cruel but it would of been in its own habitat when it died not some crap water tank were it should of never been in the first place... im sorry for the rant but its the honest truth i would of never known about the fish except iw as lookin at stuff on youtube... but not the point... yes its a marvaleous sight to see and yes it is sad that we cant really see more of them in their natural habitat... but life works in mysterious ways... the thing on evolution well some things werent meant to evolve and some were thats just the way i see it... and as for the BIG BANG theory what in the hell does that have to do with this fish...? ya sure it has to do with everything but it was done millions of years ago so why worry about it for the geeks out there ya its your thing to worry about for the marine biologists... well you guys have a great occupation and it benefits the world... keep up the good work... but QUIT takin shit out of its habitat... on the other hand if u cant study it liek that dotn bother moving it have a nice day... this rant could go on forever lol... so im gonna stop here... but on the other han it is a pleasure to see other species even if they are ill well cyas

Lauren

i would say the animal become sick, and since rising to shallow waters was not used to te different change in temperature and surroundings, also there is less oxygen deep down so all together more oxygen and temp and illness probably caused it to dry ( remembering that it went to the marine park where it is not in the same enviroment with the deep water). I find this very fasinating and i love learning about stuff like this :)